Faking My Way to a Marathon

Journey to My First Half Marathon, Weeks 13 – 15 (Highlights)

After running 17 races last year as a complete beginner, I am now training for my first Half Marathon on the 13th May 2018.

Training for a Half Marathon is hard. Not so much the running but juggling running with gym, kids’ school activities, birthday parties, work assignments and everything else in between! The last three weeks have not been the best in terms of running – I have fallen down a couple of times but thankfully I’ve gotten up and continued to push forward. Here are some highlights, including my longest ever run and a phenomenal 10 km trail race!

Week 13: 26th March – 1st April

This was the week leading up to Easter so it was quite busy at work but I managed two runs (Easy 5 km and a Pace Workout) plus two fantastic 1-hour gym sessions, including a Kick Class which I had never tried before. It being Easter, I also got to go to gym class with Ditiro which was a nice treat as usually our work schedules don’t allow for that!

This was not the greatest week and I missed all but ONE workout. Thankfully, the workout I didn’t miss was my 16 km Long Run on Easter Monday which I did in 2:15:40! This was my longest run ever! Aaahhhh! Can you feel my excitement? Lol! I did it with my running crew – Ditiro, Tapiwa and Elisa and we had so much fun, each of us going at our own pace but waiting for each other at the end for a good stretch. My knee started feeling quite sore around the 8 km mark which slowed me down quite a bit. So although my lungs and heart felt strong, my knee took a bit of a hit.

16 km in the bag!

That was it for the rest of the week. My knee was okay after a couple of days but I had so much going on that running and gym fell off my priority list. On Saturday though, I did take part in my daughter’s school fundraiser – a quadrathlon where I was the runner in the 1.21 km “sprint”, my daughter was the cyclist, my husband the swimmer, and my dad-in-law our 100m obstacle course runner at the end. It was so much fun and I love the fact that the school is finding ways to get families fit and active in a fun way!

Week 15: 9th – 15th April

After a week of little running, I got back into things this week with two short runs (a 5 km run with the family and a 6.66 km progression run). I also took part in the Lady K 10 km Trail Race which was so much fun! I did it in 1:15:17 which was over a minute and a half faster than last year’s race AND I took second place in the dress up competition – the prize is a dinner voucher and a bottle of wine from a lovely Italian restaurant in town – Basilico! So I would say, it was well worth running in my husband’s scrubs!

It can be hard to fit everything in! It looks like you are doing great. I think the key is even if you miss a couple of workouts to still try to start fresh the next week. And you got in your long run AND a strong 10k race, which is awesome!

Exactly! I think the old me would have just let one bad week roll into another bad week. But now I’m getting better at just starting fresh and pushing forward! Was very pleased about that 16k! This week there’s a 19k on the schedule and I’m surprisingly quite excited about it!

Congrats on your longest distance ever and an awesome trail race! It’s hard to be 100% consistent (and probably not healthy to be that rigid), but what I think is important is picking it back up, which you’ve done. Good luck with the coming weeks!

Thank you! It is hard to juggle everything and I don’t regret all the things I managed to get done in the week I didn’t run! But I am so happy I was able to get back to business the following week. Only 4 weeks left to my half marathon so I will have to stay focused in the next few weeks!

Thanks Wendy! Thankfully, they ended up being quite comfortable. Most of my tops are sleeveless so I was pleasantly surprised! But I am very glad I decided to run in my normal running tights. I think running in the scrub bottoms would have been quite the task!

Sounds like you’re doing great despite the scheduling conflicts. I’ll admit that interference with my workouts is the main reason for me not wantimg to go back to work. Congrats on the 10k PR and the prize! A bottle of wine is a major score in my book!! 🍷

It’s definitely hard to fit any kind of training in with all of the other life stuff. Sometimes, there really just isn’t time, no matter how much you try to make time (there are only so many hours in a day, after all). Congrats on your longest run so far and the 10K trail PR!

Thank you! I always try to choose an outfit that doesn’t hamper the running. I was a bit worried about the heat and the scrubs top but it wasn’t too bad. And during the actual run I put the glasses and the mask in my pocket!

I think you did pretty well to get all those runs in! I love all the smiling faces in your pictures. I need to get training for my Half in 5 weeks. I need to get out a calendar and figure out when plan some 11 and 12 mile runs at least.

Thank you Debbie. I love getting them involved in my fitness activities. My parents did such a great job raising my sisters and I but fitness was not such a priority. So I’m trying to do a lot more of that!